Merle, Polly Wright was the daughter of Philbert Wright and Mary Molly Sears. Philbert and Molly were my 5th great grandparents. John and Polly were 1st. cousins. The Blue River Church is still active today and many of the Wright/Sears descendants attend this church and are buried in the cemeteries at the church. Thank you for the information on Philbert and Elder John Wright. I knew they were preachers and founded Blue River Church but no idea they were causing problems. Something new to research. Joyce > I do not know where this Polly Wright connects to John Wright - but this > puts these Frantz brothers right in the middle of the whole Brethren > problem there in southern Indiana - a problem that resulted in the loss > of maybe half of the denomination of that day. > > Merle C Rummel

Do you have the information on Mary Sears? (a family sheet - I'm collecting -if possible - and her parents) Do you have the Blue River Church Cemetery listing? - is that where the Frantz/France men are buried? (I intend to go back down -later this spring) Where exactly is the Blue River Church? (I'd not previously considered its importance) - the Liberty Church is several miles east of Orleans, in Orange County IN - and a little north, toward the Washington County Line. The Liberty Church is the old Lost River Brethren Church -where Joseph Hostetler ("the Boy Preacher") was a leader. I would not really imply that they "were causing problems" - they were just one outgrowth of the Great Revival. They were essentially Brethren, who became involved with the Revival - or the "Restoration" (a return to "Primitive Christianity" - i.e. -the New Testament teachings). The problem came out of Barton Stone's Revival ("New Lights" - Cane Ridge KY), emphasized by the great "End Times" fear of the New Madrid Earthquake. [New Madrid Missouri - greatest earthquake known on this continent - about 8.6 on the Richter Scale - the Mississippi River "ran upstream" for 2 hours - and it is a mile and half across there at New Madrid - it was BAD! It rang the church bells in Philadelphia PA and in Los Angeles CA. Very Strong Aftershocks lasted 2 months -and were strong, clear over here to Indiana Ohio - we are on the New Madrid fault -almost to Dayton OH). The Brethren Jacob Bowers (Muhlenberg Co KY), in his diary, repeats a common phrase of the time: "The Lord is coming - and We are Not Ready!"] These "Frontier Brethren" were holding :"open" meetings, that any who would believed could worship together - including ministers who were not ordained by the Brethren! (horrors). Living on the frontier, they did not hold to the "garb", the Brethren Dress, that was developing (per records of Historian Abraham Cassel). From his statement, almost half of the church was "lost" -at this time. Decades later, in northern Illinois -a reconciliation was made with a descendants of some of these, who had moved away (to escape?) - the "Far Western Brethren". Alexander Campbell, founder of the Christian Church (on which the Wrights partially based the Blue River Church), challenged Joseph Hostetler; "Lets quit arguing practices, and just be Christians!" They practiced Single Immersion baptism - compared to the Brethren's Trine Immersion (Joseph Hostetler -at Annual Meeting in 1821 -persuaded the Brethren that a person immersed only once, was going to heaven as assuredly as one immersed three times). Single Immersion was practiced by other well known Brethren Ministers - of Frontier Brethren persuasion - in Ohio and Indiana. The Annual Meeting Elders rejected it 5 years later - in the mean time, the Annual Meeting Elders sent representative Elders out, Two by Two - to the Frontier. They did not like what they saw. Elder Adam Hostetler, and Elder Peter Han were put on the Ban, and many of the Brethren Association became part of the Disciples of Christ, Christian group. Elder Jacob Miller (of Montgomery Co OH) was taken to "Conference" in 1811, and the Dayton Ohio church was divided Four Ways; Elder William Smith (in the Raccoon Creek Church, Putnam Co IN) had his church taken away form him, and given to another; Elder Jacob Rhorer, at Jessamine Co KY, was told he got "too happy" when he preached -he took his whole congregation and went Methodist (the prominent Methodist - Asbury College, there, was a result). The Brethren Conflict was between the authority established by Annual Meeting and the Elders Body - of out East, who suddenly ran into Brethren in the West, who had held to some variant of the original form of Brethren Pietism, and were different ("strange") - and refused to change to what the Eastern Brethren had become during and following the American Revolution! Annual Meeting rejected them (and they are lost to our records!) This conflict resulted in some Brethren going with the Pietist Eternal Restoration (Universalism); others with the Disciples of Christ (there are reports that the Brethren at the Lost River Church/Liberty Church called themselves "Dunker Christians" as late as the 1850s). There was conflict -and efforts at reconciliation - and many of these churches changed their names: the Clark County IN church called itself "Olive Branch" (offer an Olive Branch of peace) - as did the Bull Skin Church in Clermont Co OH; the Lost River Church called itself "Liberty" (and I've seen that elsewhere); the Hinkston Creek Church (near Mt Sterling KY) called itself "Union Church" (another frequent name - repeated by Elder Peter Han, of that church, in some of his church groups elsewhere). These were those who went Disciples of Christ. Some remained "Baptist Brethren" - but now joined up with others of the English Baptists - and in many cases became the Primitive Baptist denomination. As above, some went Methodist - which was the English branch of the German Pietism. They just were no longer Brethren. This is the research I am working on. My church, Stonelick, a meetinghouse of the old Obannon Church (1795), in Clermont Co OH, is one of only two of these "Frontier Brethren" churches, that did remain with the Brethren Denomination. The Strait Creek Church, a meetinghouse of the old Brush Creek Churches (Adams and Highland Cos OH) is the other - and my Dad pastored there. There are records of Elder Peter Han at both of these. I've put a lot of this together in my papers at www.cob-net.org/docs/brethrenlife.htm - frontier pietism - I'm working at putting it together as a book. Merle C Rummel > Polly Wright was the daughter of Philbert Wright and Mary Molly Sears. > Philbert and Molly were my 5th great grandparents. John and Polly were 1st. > cousins. > The Blue River Church is still active today and many of the Wright/Sears > descendants attend this church and are buried in the cemeteries at the > church. > Thank you for the information on Philbert and Elder John Wright. I knew > they were preachers and founded Blue River Church but no idea they were > causing problems. Something new to research. >

Wright-I am wondering about this family also. I know that John Keedy's eldest daughter Nancy married a Wright. I know John was also one of the earliest members of the Lost River Brethren. I am trying to find the name of Nancy's mother and am wondering if anyone might have information on that. The records I have show that John was married at leat twice. His second marriage was to my great-great grandmother Jane Whitely. I would like to learn if I can the name of the mother of his older chidren. Thanks very much. Liberty Church is located on East Franklin St roughly a half mile out of the town center via E. Liberty Road. I was there this past fall. The cemetery has changed some since the last time I was there in 2002. The beautiful old tree in the center island has fallen and many, many grave stones have disappeared. It is still a beautifully maintained cemetery and some folks have obviously set replacement stones. Alice ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joyce Underwood" <groovygrammy@insightbb.com> To: <brethren@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2008 8:34 PM Subject: Re: [BRE] Frantz Wright > Merle, > Polly Wright was the daughter of Philbert Wright and Mary Molly Sears. > Philbert and Molly were my 5th great grandparents. John and Polly were > 1st. > cousins. > The Blue River Church is still active today and many of the > Wright/Sears > descendants attend this church and are buried in the cemeteries at the > church. > Thank you for the information on Philbert and Elder John Wright. I knew > they were preachers and founded Blue River Church but no idea they were > causing problems. Something new to research. > Joyce > >> I do not know where this Polly Wright connects to John Wright - but this >> puts these Frantz brothers right in the middle of the whole Brethren >> problem there in southern Indiana - a problem that resulted in the loss >> of maybe half of the denomination of that day. >> >> Merle C Rummel > > ------------------------ > Search the Archives at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/BRETHREN > ------------------------ > Support Our Sponsoring Agency > The Fellowship Of Brethren Genealogists (FOBG) > For further information contact Ron McAdams mailto:McAdamsr@hotmail.com > ------------------------ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > BRETHREN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message